GREENPOINT FILM FESTIVAL Review—A Drive-in for the Modern Era

Editor’s Note: Click here to read a preview for the Greenpoint Film Festival

It’s hard to get more grassroots than selling house plants at your film festival, yet that is exactly what set the vibe for our visit to the Greenpoint Film Festival. It was already bound to be an offbeat experience, considering the hybrid model of attendance—half drive-in, half sitting at socially-distanced tables—and yet the bar continued to raise.

We found ourselves sitting in a parking lot in the middle of industrial Brooklyn, guided through lines of warehouses by a man with a multicolored bandana. As we pulled into the lot proper, we were approached by volunteers who took our temperature, awkwardly leading us as we pulled in right behind a jet black Ferrari. We were surprised to find that the lot was halfway full more than an hour before the night’s Shorts Medley began, and would continue to fill up soon after. Ordering some arepas from a local restaurant as we waited for the event to begin only added to the eccentric character the festival had developed.

Things kicked off as our host went into what was clearly a natural crowd-warming speech, but despite their good humor, it seemed that they quickly found that it was difficult to play to an audience made up primarily of unblinking cars. At this time, we noticed that to accommodate the hybrid model, speakers were set up along the side of the building on the side of the parking lot.

Greenpoint Film Festival Shows Wide Range of Indie Creativity

Perhaps the most eclectic thing about the event was the selection of films, as they transitioned from comedy skit to nature documentary to an experimental narrative film made up of photographs. Anybody could recognize the creativity and passion that went into each short in the collection. The variety of film topics on display was the kind one can only find at an indie film festival—a boy with wishes of racing abandoned school buses, men surfing in the great lakes during the harsh winter, and a world where the seasons have reversed. Things ended off on a brief Q/A session with a few of the filmmakers. It was somewhat subdued, as only a handful of audience questions were asked. Nonetheless, the filmmakers showed initiative with their responses to the host’s questions, delving into their creative processes, their inspirations, and describing the teams of friends and family with whom they worked.

Greenpoint Film Festival Compromises in the Era of Covid

The hybrid model organized by this festival was a major compromise, as crowd engagement and hearing the speakers were serious concerns for those in their cars. This is fitting for the age of COVID, which is all about compromise. In this writer’s view, the aforementioned issues might prevent the hard of hearing from attending, but the overall experience, in all of its offbeat glory, was more than worth the time.

For more information and to bookmark this event for next year, visit the Greenpoint Film Festival website.

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Images Courtesy of Heather DiPietro and Connor Grehan